The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-02
THROWING DICE.
A Form of Gambling That is Growing
in Favor Everywhere.
From the 81. Louis Globe Democrat

superseded all other forms of gambling in
st Louis at present, and not only in the
city but all through the State is this the
case. The course of the wonderful prev
valence of dice shaking is to be found in
the gambling laws. which have been en-
forced in st. Louis more rigidly perhaps
than in any other large city of the
Union
II used to think nobody played dice but
negroes" said a man who has a saloon and
no less than six sets of dice for the accom-
mediation of his customers, ''but I've got to
think dice is pretty good white mans
game. It's great game. In the first place,
it's square. There's nothing in it but dead
luck, and everybody in the game has an
equal show
"There is no cheating init, then, is there"
the reporter inquired.
well, there may be. There are what are
known as hold outs For instance, man
throwing the dice out the first time throws
three aces and two other numbers By
dexterous movement he can turn one of the
other numbers over until the ace is up grab
that in position in his little finger, throw the
the other dice in the box and shake It, AS
he puts down the box and lifts it up he
leaves the dice he holds out on the table,
ace up. Then there are certain men who
can palm dice very nicely and deposit them
on the counter with any number up they
desire. Cogged dice-that is, dice that are
loaded to turn up certain numbers-have
been used, but the rankest 'chump' can
catch on to a cogged dice in no time, and
when there are three or four in a game a
man has to chain lightning to work the
hOld-out to any extent. Most games, how
ever, are on the square, and a hold-out is no
good If the players insist that the dice be
rolled out of the box, instead of the box
simply being inverted with the dice under
it,"
"What is the favorite game@
st depends. There is good deal of sin
gle dice shallen-that is, one dice is shaken
with ace high, and deuce low. It's rapid
game. One shake apiece among the players
and high man goes out. Then the shake
passes around again until the last two in,
shake off They can shake it off at sin
gle throw or dash, or they can shake horses,
which means best two out of three. You
and | shake, say we're the last two; l win
the first throw, that's horse on you. We
shake again and you win, that's a horse on
me- That's horse and horse Next shake the
winner wins the game, and the other man
is stuck. Then there's a game in which
three dies are used, the ace counting lUO, the
spots CO. There are three throws II a man
should throw three aces first throw, he lets
up That's as much as be can get The
other mans only chance is to tie the throw.
If the first man throws and ace, and the
other two dies turn up anything except six
he throws them again. On the last of the
three throws the numbers outside OF six
count. If man throws an ace on the
first dash, six on the next, and five on
the next he makes 100. Poker dice is the
game, though You use five dice in that,
and the spots count just as in poker, except
that as a general thing straight's don't
count. Three of kind beats two pair, a
full hand beats threes, tours beat full hand,
and fives can't be beaten except by higher
range of fives. Five aces are not beatable.
| Ace is high deuce low. There's lots of fun
in poker dice, and some skill in determining
what man shall throw to. tits very often
a better policy to throw to trays than to aces
| or to deuces than to skies, but all these
| things man can only tumble to by expert
ence There are other ways of tossing dice
| for money, such as betting how long it will
take to throw all the numbers from ace to
five with five dice A man may do it in the
first throw, III three throws. or it may take
him twenty It's the same way with throw
ing five of q given kind I've seen a man
| shake fifty-three times trying to throw five
aces. and I've seen another man throw
! them in a single throw. It's luck and moth
ing else. SINNERS have little show be-
cause no man who runs dice in his house
wants his customers done up by crook. A
man with streak Of bad luck will go broke
soon enough without having the dice mon
keyed on him."
Luck is believed in, by all dice gamblers,
but the dice gambler, like his fellow of the
faro table. has his little supersititions. He'll
ask q negro to touch his dice for him. He'll
kick if some unlucky party-in the phrase
of the class a Jonah-touchest them. Certain
numbers he'll believe in, and others he
wouldn't shake to if he was to lose his head
on the dash.
A game ut the Planters House bar the
other evening illustrated how this superstl-
ton on numbers chung to man. 1t was
game remarkable in the first place because
it was at the hotel bar, where few years
ago a dice box was regarded as a plebelan
Institution in the second place because the
dice throwers werc high rollers. 1t started
among a party who shook for bottle of
wine. They shook for two bottles OF VINE
They got to shaking for 50 and $40 "a
crack The money went up and came
down rapidly; it wasn't put on the counter,
hit the loser lust paid over to the winner
ofter every shake. In addition to the game
for the regular stakes there were bets on the
outside--bets that certain players would
NOT beat n certain throw. One man bet
that another would not beat certain throw,
fours. The wager was suit or clothes
Tho thrower threw trays and lost, wrote
ont tlle order for a suit, and the winner left
laughing The loser of that bet lost on the
rep,,Iar Stake about S25. The game stopped
about ~ O'clock One man was loser on the
NIGHTS amusement only $500 but he said
that he was really only $l20 out, as he had
beaten the Others out of $3.50 some nights
before. In this game there was one man
who had a pronounced aversion to throwing
IN sizes. '!They'ro Jonahs for inc, he said,
ard rather throw TO deuces," and several
times he discarded good layouts OF skies
for moor little deuces, and really seemed 10
he able to throw deuces better than any
other. Elves are favorite numbers with
dice shakers. In addition TO peculiar be-
liefs MS TO numbers, there are beliefs as 10
the way TO handle the box. Some men never
throw the dice without blowing on them.
others always blow on dice that rolls on
tbe floor. Some men would not shake dice
If they couldn't rap the bottom OF the box
On the counter two or three times, and
many believe that they can change their
iuck Inv shifting the box in shaking from one
hand 10 another The most ridiculous
t,,nerstition ever observed, though, was that
of n urominent lawyer who, when in los
inc streak, discarded the dice box ana De
can shaking the cubes out Of his plug nat.
Whether there was any peculiar virtue III
the hat is not known, but he pulled out OF
~ bad luck and quit the particular game III
which he was playing about $40 ana as many
drinks ahead